The Northern Rock mortgage bank was a high profile casualty of the credit crunch in 2007. An evolutionary geographical political economy approach demonstrates that Northern Rock’s growth and decline was shaped by its location in an old industrial region, and echoes the historical position of the peripheral region in the spatial division of labour. A longitudinal investigation focuses on the labour market dynamics of Northern Rock’s rapid growth and decline on the North East of England. The Northern Rock case highlights the enduring occupational structure of the region’s labour market, and shows how older industrial regions suffer from a process of ‘occupational disadvantage’ that restricts their ability to adapt to economic change